Google Play Store Update

Today we got a badass update to Gmail, giving users the much awaited feature of being able to reply, delete and archive right from the status bar notifications. Many ran out to the streets to rejoice. Others, particularly those with the LED control app Light Flow installed, were stuck inside trying to figure out why their notification bars were being bombarded with error messages.
Andrew Moore...

Google's Field Trip app may not be at the front of everyone's mind, but it's still being developed and improved. The latest update has added several new sources of information and added a new way to dismiss and snooze notifications that appear. You will now see more content from Art Nerd New York, Cultureist, Mad Girl Eats, Weekend Sherpa, Wilderness Press and more when searching for local info...

Skype has just been updated to give users the option of selecting a "classic" UI instead of the new and improved tablet interface. The previous update to Skype added many new features and a more tablet-optimized interface overall, including a portrait UI for calling -- the curious part was the rest of the app was still locked in landscape mode. Skype is now backpedaling, sort of, by letting...

Everyone's favorite social check in service Foursquare has just pushed out a notable update in the Play Store, bringing a refreshed UI, some new features and a lot of polish. The previous UI wasn't bad or ugly by any stretch, but the Foursquare team has managed to add a bit more functionality and design to this latest update. The main homescreen is now a bit cleaner, with a universal "explore"...

Pinterest has just updated its app offering to improve the experience of managing community boards from your Android device. The new update -- version 1.3.1 -- lets users properly view the contributors to a community board, so you can see who is pinning items with you. The update also lets you accept or reject board invites, as well as leave boards you're already a member of.
You can grab a...

The Google+ app has just been updated to add a few bits of functionality and a new notification system. With the previous update we received a new post composition screen that let you add a photo or mood to the post, and this update is putting a "link" option between the two. Tapping on it lets you manually add a URL, although we'd bet most people will be copy/pasting URLs in. On the main UI...

Google Play Music has just received a notable update to add a few features that have been bugging users for some time now. Right off the top you'll spot a proper reverse button on the music widget, letting you go backwards in albums or playlists without entering the app. Instant mixes can now continue on past 25 tracks as well, and you can shuffle albums, artists or playlists. The default album...

The latest update to Skype improved the UI and added a much asked for feature in portrait calling, but unfortunately the rest of the app is locked in landscape. The portrait calling seemed like a no-brainer fix, especially considering many smaller tablets -- like the Nexus 7 -- have camera setups meant for portrait orientation. The unfortunate bug (or at least we hope it's a bug) is that for now...

Group messaging service GroupMe has had an invite-only beta program going for its latest update -- v4.0 -- since early November, and has now finally released it to the Play Store. This latest update brings a complete redesign to the app, with new fonts, colors and layout. It's now easier to send direct messages and access your chats from anywhere in the app with a new slide-out drawer on the...

Facebook's popular Messenger service, which has its own standalone app, is getting a voice message feature in its latest update. The service has relied on the combination of text and picture messages, as is the case with most instant messaging platforms, but is now aiming itself squarely at the likes of Voxer and other voice messaging apps out there with this latest addition.
You can send short...

Popular homescreen replacement Nova Launcher has just hit version 2.0 with a whole bunch of notable feature adds and improvements. The free version gets most of the improvements including custom wallpaper cropping, increased maximum desktop grid size and an infinitely scrolling app drawer setting. There's also a fix to force wallpaper scrolling on U.S. Galaxy SII (S2) variants, as well as a...

Samsung has just updated its universal chat service, ChatON, with a whole host of new features. When first launching the app, users are now greeted with the ability to sign in with their Samsung account, which makes syncing smoother. This means that all of your devices -- up to 5 in total -- with ChatON will receive messages simultaneously, which is a feature you'd expect from this type of...

Light Flow, a popular app to control notification LED's and sounds, has added support for a whole host of new apps today. In total, 62 new apps can now have their notification sound, vibration and LED flashing controlled including some notable apps like Falcon Pro. The app now also supports Ice Cream Sandwich users with multiple calendars, as well as the ability to swipe away calendar...

Just in time for your last minute holiday shopping, Amazon is adding push notifications for shipping and delivery to its Android app. From the app settings, you can select to receive push notifications from the app -- both when packages are shipped and daily when there are "lightning deals" available that you may be interested in. Considering most of us will receive an Email notification (and...

ESPN has just made a pretty substantial update to its ScoreCenter app for Android, bringing in a completely refreshed UI experience. The app now follows most of the general Google design guidelines -- aka "holo" -- throughout the app, from removing the legacy menu button to using sliding panels and tabbed navigation. This is a big step forward in design for the app, and it really makes a...

USAA continues to make improvements to its mobile banking and account management app today with several UI and bug fixes. An important fix was made to let users on Jelly Bean properly log in and use their PIN with the app, and another bug that kept users on Android 3.1 and higher from doing person-to-person transfers. USAA has also now added the ability to fund an account when you create one...

Everyone's favorite universal payment app, Paypal, has just been updated with a few nice features. First off, there's full landscape support in this update -- something we're surprised wasn't there before. You can also now set a payment preference for specific stores, so for example you can have one credit card set as a default when you pay Amazon, and another to pay Starbucks.
The changelog...

The photography app space is a crowded one, and increasingly so since Android 4.0 because of the improvements in the stock camera app. Even with Android brining its own panorama -- and now Photo Sphere -- features, a popular panorama app TeliportMe (aka Panorama app: 360) has stuck around. Today we're seeing the latest iteration of the app -- a version 3.0 update -- and it brings a complete...

UberConference is launching an app today on Android (and iOS) that lets users quickly and easily set up conference calls from their cellphone. The app is focusing on ease of use, letting users simply select the contacts to be invited to the call and letting the app do the rest. UberConference will automatically send out dial-in details to contacts or even call out to them individually when the...

Walmart has made some subtle updates to its app -- now v1.4.1 -- that should help customers looking to ease the headaches of shopping this holiday season. Now in addition to online ordering and shopping cart management, you can view the localized ads for specific stores in your area. After letting the app view your location, you can see the newspaper circular for each store, and see if there are...

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